8 Questions That Will Lead You To Quit The Photography Business

8. How will I find the money to buy more equipment?

Photographers love equipment. The newest camera body or a really great lens has been known to send shivers down a passionate photographer’s spine. But when you find yourself starting to book photo gigs just to have enough money to buy the latest gadget, you know you’ve reached a whole new level with your photography.

7. Why do I have to market my business?

I get it; photographers love to photograph, but they hate to market their business. It’s time to get over it. If you are in business, you have to market, and you have to sell. That’s the only way to bring in money, bring in profits, and survive as a professional photographer.

6. How do I compete with the dozens of photographers in my area?

The best photographers out there today don’t look at those around them and wonder how to compete. They find a way to stand out in the crowd. They combine their passions, like Christina Morassi has done. Or they take an old service and add a new twist, like Lauren Victoria Burke has done. Or they give people exactly what they want, like Karma Hill has done.

5. Why should I take that class?

Education is a necessary part of every photographer’s life. From classes to improve your technique, to training sessions on becoming a better business owner, you should always be learning something new. It’s the only way to succeed.

4. When should I start looking for another job?

How much time do you spend thinking about another career or a different job? If you find yourself looking through the classifieds more than you spend marketing your business, its obvious its time to change your focus.

3. When is my phone going to ring?

Here’s a secret: your phone won’t ring unless you make it ring. You have to change your offers. Connect with a lot of people. Make them an offer they can’t refuse. And if the phone doesn’t ring, you start all over again. Create another idea. Make an offer. And see what happens. There’s no right or wrong way to it – you just have to do it.

2. Isn’t my flash website enough?

“I developed my flash website 3 years ago, yet I’ve never had one client book me solely from my website.” Yep. Your flash website simply doesn’t work anymore. If you put it together 3 years ago and have left it set, its waaaayyyyy out of date. People today want to see new, fresh work. In order to get into the search engines, you have to work at it every day. Flash doesn’t get you search traffic. So if you are still relying on that, you’ll be waiting a loooonnnnnggggg time.

1. What is this thing called Facebook?

Like it or not, marketing has changed. People don’t go to the phone books, they head online. They don’t rely on magazines or newspapers to find what they are looking for, they rely on their friends from Facebook. And if you aren’t on it, or have plans to jump on in the very near future, your “open for business” sign will soon be replaced with “closed forever”.

2 Comments

Excellent points all. Number six is worth stressing. Too many photographers get stressed about competition from other professionals and especially amateurs. They do themselves or the profession no favors by doing this rather than working on their own game.

Rafal
on October 21, 2010 at 12:42 am

Good points, most of them are very valuable for most freelance jobs. I am on little bit opposite way. I am in IT business for more than 10 years, being developer, coach and software architect. Now I am little bit bored with that stuff (which used to be my hobby) so I figured out… I’ll keep my job and shot photos for fun. If it come any money with it, cool, if not no crisis… but I want to improve anyway for me… maybe I’ll make this my “job” when on retire 🙂